Street-sweeping machine.



A. A. ANDREWS.

STREET SWEEPING MACHINE.

APPLIGATION FILED JUNI: 8,1m.

A. A. ANDREWS.

STREET SWEEPING MACHINE.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 1914.

Patented Dec. 15, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2A THF MORRIS PETERS C0.. PHLvro-Lmwo,` WASHING VON. D C

ARTI-IUE A. ANDREWS, OF ROCKFORID, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JULIUS G. WEINBERG, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

STREET-SXVEEPING MACHINE.

Patented Dec. 15, 1914;.

Application filed .Tune 8, 1914. Serial No. 843,745.

To aZZ rwhom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR A. ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rockford, in the county of Vinnebago and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Sweeping Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention pertains to street-swee ing machines of that type adapted to e manually operated, that is, pushed by an operator along a street pavement to clean the surface thereof of loose dust, dirt, etc.

The purpose of my invention primarily, is to provide a street-sweeping machine of the above character having sweeping and elevating conveyor means, with improved driving means, for the purpose of simplifying the construction of the .machine and to permit the machine to be light of draft.

Another object of my invention is to provide a sweeping machine of this type with sweeping and elevating conveyer means `so arranged that the sweeper will gather dirt and throw it forwardly toward the conveyer to be elevated thereby and discharged into a receptacle carried by the machine.

A further object of my invention is to provide a sweeping machine mounted upon a pair of carrying-wheels, with sweeping means, elevating coiiveyer means, and a detachable dirt receptacle, so arranged rela tively to the carrying-wlieels as to effect a very compact machine and one in which the several devices above named are evenly balanced relatively to the carrying-wheels- A further object is to provide a streetsweeping machine with a n ovel means for mounting and detaching a dirt receptacle.

Another object is to equip the machine with wheelmeans auxiliary to the carrying-wheels for maintaining the sweeping brush in a determined relation with the ground and whereby the sweeping brush may be moved through bodily movement of the machine frame, to an inoperative position without moving the said wheel-means from the ground.

Referring to the drawings-Figure' 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view through my improved street-sweeping inachine, taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, a portion of the lower dirt casing and'of the conveyer being shown in section. Fig. 2. is a plan view of the sweeping machine with portions of the hood broken away. Fig. 3

is a detail sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, illustrating the clutch lever. Fig. 4. is a alan sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view through the machine along the wheel axle, taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a detail vertical sectional view through one of the caster-wheel supports; and Fie. 7 is a detail sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

The sweeping machine comprises in general, a main frame carried by a pair ol wheels, the frame carrying the sweeping apparatus and parts auxiliary thereto, and

is formed of upper longitudinal sidesbars 8, a lower U-sliaped bar 9, forward land rear vertically disposed bars 11 and l2 respectively, connecting the upper and lower frame bars, and inclined brace bars 13 and 14. This particular arrangement of frame is not essential, as it is obvious that various mechanically equivalent structures may be devised to produce a frame suitable for the sweeping means.

The frame is carried primarily, by a pair of wheels 15 of relatively large diameter, the wheels being mounted loosely upon an axle 16 which is journaled on the frame through bearings 17. The wheels are each provided with a ratchet connection l0 with the axle, of suitable construction, so that the axle will rotate with the wheels upon movenient of the same forwardly over the ground, but will be disengaged therefrom when the movement of the wheels is reversed.

Mounted loosely upon the axle 16 is a sleeve 18 with one end thereof journaled in one of the bearings 17. pair of sprocketwheels 19 are ixedly mounted on sleeve 18; and the sleeve is driven from the wheels 15 through the intermediary of a clutch 21 of suitable construction, the clutch being operable to engage and disengage the shaft with the sleeve, by means of a hand lever 22 located at the rear of the frame.

An endless elevating conveyor designated generally by the reference character 23 is arranged to circuinpose the axle 1G and is mounted upon sprocket-wheels positioned if at the upper and lower portions of the ma chine frame in such a manner that the elevating side of the conveyer extends from a point in proximity with the ground at the rear of the wheels axis, to an elevated point sprocket-chain.

forward of said axis. The elevating conveyer comprises, more particularly, an endless flexible body 24 upon which is mounted a plurality of buckets 25, and is equipped at its sides with sprocket-chains 26 and 27. The upper and lower sprocket-wheels 28 and 29 respectively, mounted upcnthe frame,

mesh with the conveyer sprocket-chains and guide the conveyer in the path above mentioned; Both the elevating and return sides of the conveyer chain portions are in mesh with the sprocket-wheels 19, whereby upon driving of the sleeve 18 from'the carryingwheels the elevator is operated.

Mounted upon and intermediate the sidesr the conveyer sprocket-chain, the'chain 34 being mounted upon sprocket-wheels 35 and 36, the latter carried by a shaft 3'? adjustv ably mounted on a frame-connected bracketl 38, and a sprocket-wheel 39 mounted on said shaft 43"( being in mesh with the conveyer v At the rear lower end of the frame is a pair of caster-wheels4l mounted in sleevecasings 42. The pivotshanks of the casterwheels have adjusting nuts 43 on their lower ends, which nuts abut the bottom ends of the casings 42 and are' adjustable vertically. This construction maintains the sweeping brush in a determined relation to the ground and permits the brush to be adjusted relatively thereto by adjusting the'nuts 43. The upper end of the caster-wheel shank is provided with an annular grove 44; and carried by the casing 42 below the groove 44 is a laterally extending detent finger 45 springpressed against the shank, so that when the shank is lowered relatively to the frame to raise the brush from the gro-und, the detent linger will enter said groove and hold the sweeping brush elevated, subject to be lowered by manually withdrawing the detent finger.

A dirt vreceptacle 46 open at its top and upper rear end is detachablymounted upon the forward end of the framein such position as to receive the discharge from the upper end of the conveyer. The receptacle is so mounted by means comprising downwardly pointed lugs 47 fixed to each side of the receptacle, the lugs restingv upon brackets 48 shaped to receive the pointed ends thereof, and levers 49 pivoted intermediate their l ends, shaped to engage the pointed ends of the lugs and to lift and guide, upon moving the forward ends of the levers downwardly,

with the rotation of the wheels.

the receptacle from its operative position to v erator to grasp when pushing the sweeping' machine. n

The drawings illustrate the machine operativeV and ready for sweeping. Upon pushing the machine forwardly the elevating conveyer will be driven by the Wheels l5,

through sprockets 19, so that the conveyer at the rear side of the machine will travel upwardly, in the same direction, comparatively, -But the brush, by reason of its sprocket connection or reverse drive connectiony with the conveyer sprocket-chain, will be rotated in a direction opposite to that of the wheels and conveyer, whereby the brush will gather loose dirt from the pavement and throw Ait forwardly through casing 33 onto and to be gathered by the conveyer, which will elevate and discharge it into the receptacle 16. lt

will be seen that dirt which should happeny to be dropped by the return side of the 4conveyer or from the receiving end thereof, would be gathered by the brush because `the brush is at the rear of such placesas dirt leakage is apt to occur.

*he mechanical.embodiment of my invention herein'shown and described illustrates the object of my invention; and ll do not desire to be restricted by the mechanical details of construction shown, but. believe that my invention should be circumscribed only by the scopeof theappended claims, and that all modifications which fall within the terms of these claims should be considered as part of this invention.

l claim as my invention: 1

l. ln a street-sweeping machine, the combination of a receptacle, a combined elevating conveyer and rsprof'zket-chain, the conveyer arranged to discharge into the receptacle,a rotary brush adjacent the ground at the rear of the conveyer, and a sprocket wheel and chain connection between the conveyer sprocket-chain and thebrush for driving `the brush in the direction opposite to that of the conveyer, whereby dirt gath adapted to discharge, a rotary sweeping brush in proximity with the ground at the rear of the wheel axle, and a sprocket-wheel in mesh with the conveyer sprocket-chain and having a driving connection with the brush te rotate the same in the direction opposite to that of the wheels, the brush being adapted to gather dirt and throw it forwardly to the elevating conveyer.

3. ln a street-sweeping machine, the combination of an endless vertically disposed elevating conveyer, a sprocket-chain mounted co-axially with the conveyer, a rotary sweeping brush at the rear of the conveyer adapted to gather dirt and throw it forward to the conveyer, a sprocket-wheel connected with the brush, a sprocket-wheel meshing with said sprocket-chain, and an endless chain connecting the said brush sprocketwheel with the conveyer sprocket-wheel.

il. in a street sweeping machine, the combination oit' a pair of supporting-wheels, an axle upon which the wheels are journaled, a sprocket-wheel mounted on the axle to rotate with one of the wheels, a sprocketchain and elevating conveyer connected to move together and being coaxially mounted on one axis above and one below the axle, the sprocket-chain being in mesh intermediate said spaced axis with said sprocketwheel, a receptacle positioned to receive the discharge from the upper end of the conveyer, a rotary brush positioned in proximity to the ground andV to the rear of the lower end of the conveyer for gathering dirt and throwing it forward onto said conveyer, and means :tor rotating the brush.

ln a street sweeping machine, the combination of supporting-wheels and an axle therefor, a driving sprocket-wheel mounted coaxially with the wheels to rotate therewith, a pair of sprocket-wheels one mounted above and the other below the axle, an elevating conveyer coaxially mounted with the upper and lower sprocket-wheels and connected with the same to be driven thereby, sprocket-chain mounted to run on said pair oit sprocket-wheels and being in mesh intermediate said wheels with the said driving sprocket-wheel, dirt gathering means located in proximity to the ground for deli vering dirt gathered thereby to the lower portion of the elevating conveyer, and

means for receiving the discharge of the dirt from the upper end of said conveyer.

6. ln a street sweeping machine, the combination of supporting-wheels and an axle therefor, a sprocket-wheel mounted coaxially with the axle 'to rotate with one of the wheels, and a sprocket-chain and an elevating conveyer connected together and being coaxially mounted on axes spaced above and below the axle, the chain being in mesh intermediate said spaced axes with said sprocket-wheel to be driven thereby.

7. In a street sweeping machine, the cornbination of supporting-wheels and an axle therefor, a sprocket-wheel coaxially mounted with the axle and connected with one of the wheels to be rotated thereby, and an elevating conveyer extending from proximity to the ground to an elevated position, a rotary brush located at the rear of the conveyer adapted to gather dirt and throw it forward to be carried by the conveyer to an elevated point, a sprocket-chain meshing with said sprocket-wheel and connected with the elevating conveyer for operating the same, and a driving connection between said sprocket-chain and the rotary brush for operating the same comprising a pair of sprocket-wheels coaxially mounted, one being in mesh with the said sprocket-chain and the other having a sprocket-chain connection with the rotary brush.

8. In a street sweeping machine, the combination of supporting-wheels and an axle therefor, a pair of sprocket-wheels one mounted above and the other below the axle, a sprocket-chain in mesh with said sprocketwheels and having a driving connection with one of the supporting-wheels, an elevating conveyer connected to and mounted coaxially with the sprocket-chain, a rotary brush mounted in proximity 'to the ground and adapted to gather dirt to be elevated by the conveyer', and a sprocket-wheel meshing with said siiiroclret-clmin and having a driving-connection with the rotary brush for rotating the same. Y

9. ln a street sweeping machine, the combination of a pair of supporting-wheels, a frame mounted thereon, a rotary sweeping brush mounted on the frame at the rear of the wheels axis, an elevating conveyer disposed orward of the brush and adapted to receive dirt gathered thereby, a caster wheel connected to a verticallv disposed pivot member mounted on the frame at the rear ot' the wheels axis and being vertically ad- `instable with respect to the frame, and means for automatically engaging said pivot member when the same has been lowered a predetermined distance with respect to the 'frame for locking said pivot member with the frame to hold the brush elevated above the ground.

ARTHUR A. ANDREWS.

Witnesses:

JOHN F. MCCANNA, W. T. JACKSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

